Sūrat al-Anbiyāʼ (Arabic: سورة الأنبياء‎, “The Prophets”) is the 21st sura (or chapter) of the Qur’an with 112 ayat. It is a Makkan sura. Its principal subject matter is prophets of the past, who also preached the same faith as Muhammad.

This Sura was revealed in the Second Meccan Period and is listed as Number 66 according to the Nöldeke Chronology. Within its verses are found numerous evocations of earlier Judeo-Christian prophets. These examples help to emphasize and define Muhammad’s role as a messenger within the Qur’anic context. Additionally, the incorporation of pre-existing Biblical and Judaic scriptures integrate Muhammad’s prophetic mission into a larger religious framework, thus broadening the horizons of both the Qur’an as a text and Islam as a religious movement. Sura 21: The Prophets, is thematically and stylistically characteristic of the Second Meccan Period. The verses identify the religious agency of Muhammad by relating him to preexisting Judeo-Christian figures, and from there illustrate common notional doctrines, such as: Islamic eschatology embodied in the Day of Judgment, the fates of the disbelievers and the believers, and the mercy of God.

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In terms of ordering and delivery, Sura 21 contains a tripartite composition and traceable “ring structure,” in which the path of revelation comes full circle through the sequence of three distinct parts. Consisting of 112 verses in total, The Prophets maintains the Qur’an’s distinctive voice, in which the verses seem conscious of their own revelation and also depend on other Suras to illustrate particular messages. This clear self-referentiality, or “self-declaration,” and intertextuality are perceptibly unique to the Qur’an and possess the book with a consciousness distinct from other religious texts.

This selection anticipates the main body of the Sura, which features narratives of pre-existing Judeo-Christian prophets.

Verses 1-16 introduce the doubts of the disbelievers, posing the arguments they use to reject the prophethood of Muhammad and the authority of revelation. God refutes them, asserting that their arguments for disbelief are both weak and fundamentally misconstrued. Verse 4: “The evildoers conferred in secret; ‘Is this man anything but a mortal like yourselves?’” Here the evildoers (Disbelievers) are saying that if Muhammad were truly invested with the knowledge of God, then he would not be mortal and rather divine in nature. God dismisses this argument by calling to the examples of the earlier prophets. In the same way that past civilizations were destroyed after ignoring their God-delivered messengers, so too will the present be destroyed if they do not believe Muhammad. Verse 9: “All the messengers We sent were only men We inspired…We did not give them bodies at that ate no food.” God is saying that Muhammad is following the trend of the earlier prophets—they are mortal men inspired with the word of God, whom in the end he saved while destroying those who refused to believe.

The Qur’an possesses a special self-referentiality.

One trait that distinguishes the Qur’an from other Scriptures is the style of its narration. It seems the Qur’an is conscious of itself. It has the capability to reflect on its own lessons and those of earlier iterations of the Word. While the Bible and Torah exist as long continuous recordings intended for interpretation, The Qur’an is more concerned with an objective and reminds the audience of what it sets out to accomplish. Between verses 10 and 21, the voice maintains a driven reflexivity, Verse 16: “We did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them playfully.” Here God is reminding Muhammad that creation is the product of a specific intent.

There is no God but God.

Another defining characteristic of Islam is its commitment to “pure monotheism.” More so than those of the First Meccan period, the Second Meccan Suras spend time defining the nature of God and refuting the notion of polytheism. This characterization of God helps distinguish Islam from other religions like Judaism and Christianity, whose respective followers were presented with Islam as Muhammad’s own following spread and expanded. Verse 26 makes a reference to the Christian belief of the Holy Trinity, “And they say, ‘The Lord of mercy has taken offspring for Himself,’ and God declares that Christians have misinterpreted the scripture. God cannot have a son, and as he is the sole creator, only he should be worshipped. These verses distinguish the tenets of Islam from the tenets of Judaism and Christianity. At the same time, they unite the Qur’an to earlier revealed scriptures. Verse 24: “This is the Scripture for those who are with me and the Scripture for those who went before me.” God’s word is continuous and eternal—Muhammad is a continuation of the line of Prophets with a refined message, and the Qur’an is a renewal of the scriptures, one ready to be revealed truthfully.